By Melissa Pinion-Whitt
Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
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LOS ANGELES — The U.S. Forest Service plans to appeal violations outlined in a federal safety investigative report that placed the blame on fire officials in October’s fatal Esperanza Fire.
Forest Service officials said the findings released by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration - part of the U.S. Department of Labor - won’t affect their own plan, released in May.
“The Forest Service stands by our action plan,” said Allison Stewart, national spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service. “OSHA’s notice and citation plan won’t make us change our process on the action plan.”
Stewart says the Forest Service intends to request an informal meeting to negotiate the violations with OSHA before the Aug.13 deadline OSHA set to have the violations corrected.
OSHA’s report, released Thursday, said firefighters weren’t briefed on the status of the blaze and weather conditions, didn’t obey a commander’s orders to relocate to a safer area and didn’t wear heavy protective “turn out” equipment, among other violations. The violations occurred before the burnover that killed five firefighters in the blaze.
The Forest Service’s Accident Review Board Action Plan outlined seven recommendations it plans to complete between July 31 and March. Among the recommendations, fire officials plan to integrate lessons learned from the Esperanza Fire into various procedures.
“We all have the same goals. None of us want to have any fatalities on any of our incidents in the future,” Stewart said.
The 40,200-acre Esperanza Fire also destroyed 34 homes and 20 outbuildings. Killed were Capt. Mark Loutzenhiser, 44, of Idyllwild and firefighters Pablo Cerda, 23, of Fountain Valley; Jess McLean, 27, of Beaumont; Jason McKay, 27, of Phelan and Daniel Hoover-Najera, 20, of San Jacinto.
OSHA spokesman Roger Gayman said the informal meeting the Forest Service plans to request will hopefully help the two agencies reach an agreement to prevent deaths in future fires.
He said the Aug. 13 deadline is flexible and fire officials can petition to have OSHA’s orders modified.
“They need to give the reasons why and the interim steps they’re taking to protect workers,” Gayman said.